Oral delivery of medications is one of the most frequent techniques utilized for delivering medication to the body. One of the most popular delivery mechanisms is the capsule. The background of U.S. Pat. No. 8,361,497 issued to Miller provides a detailed description into the history and present techniques for capsule manufacture and is hereby incorporated by reference.
Capsules containing medication for oral intake are usually swallowed for delivery of the medication to the stomach, where the capsule dissolves within 20 to 30 minutes and the medication is absorbed into the bloodstream.
With respect to capsular delivery of liquid medication such as Nfedipine for urgent cardiac conditions, a 20 to 30 minute wait time until absorption into the blood stream is not acceptable for particularly acute cardiac emergencies.
One example of a method of sublingual delivery of liquid medication contained in a capsule is U.S. Pat. No. 9,114,090 issued to Busiashvili which describes a capsular design and medication discharge from the capsule onto the sublingual area of a patient.
Another example of a device for oral delivery of liquid medication from a capsule is U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,915 issued to Miller et al. where a gelcap is punctured and the liquid contained within gravitates to a pierced nipple for subsequent oral delivery.
Another known delivery mechanism is by spray application of the medication onto the sublingual area. However, with spray application there is no limit upon the maximal amount of liquid medication delivered. In other words, a patient can repeatedly spray doses thus potentially leading to cardiovascular collapse.
For situations in which the patient or user is dealing with an acute condition such as an acute coronary insufficiency, a heart attack, hypertensive crisis or arrhythmia and for which a medication such as Nifedipine and Nitroglycerin is proscribed, the user is likely to take more medication than necessary or maximally allowed. It is this lack of limitations to the single dose which could lead to a precipitous drop of arterial blood pressure and could result in cardiovascular collapse, syncope or even death. Thus, it is submitted that the available medication doses for products such as Nifedipine and Nitroglycerin are of too high of a concentration for the treatment of some patients. A device to limit or delay the administration of the total volume dosage is believed to be a method of desired treatment.